CFOG's PIP, February 1986, Volume 4 No. 4, Whole No. 40, page 6

Executives Wanted

CFOG's RCPM's are currently operating with two Osborne 1s and an Executive. The Executive is used on CFOG #2, while CFOG #1 runs on an O-1, with the second reserved as backup. Those who have been using #2 know how nicely Bill Kuykendall has set it up. Well, Bill and Glen Ostgaard, sysop of #1, would like to set up #1 on an Executive, too. Sooooooo, here are the questions:

• Does anyone have a used Executive for sale?
  We need two.
  
  
• Does anyone want to buy a used O-1?
  When the two Executives are acquired the old O-1s will be available for sale. While one of these has been used a lot, it has been run almost exclusively on the hard disk, so the disk drives don't get used that much.

Contact Bill Kuykendall, phone numbers are on page two.

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CFOG's PIP, February 1986, Volume 4 No. 4, Whole No. 40, page 6

CFOG January 1986 Board Meeting

The Board ratified purchase of a 35MB Trantor hard disk for RCPM #2.

Continuation of advertising in ComputerPeople Monthly, with a smaller ad, was approved.

The next Board meeting date was set for February 25. Meeting dates will be established month by month. We will meet about every six weeks or so.

The May regular meeting will be rescheduled to May 18 at the Museum of Science and Industry.

A flea market meeting program will be set up only if someone can be found to manage the event.

The treasurer will order 2,500 envelopes.

FOGLIGHT subscriptions will be entered for the president, treasurer, and sysop.

An experimental downtown weekday evening meeting will be held.

The president reported on meeting with SouthSide Kaypro People [SKyP]. Some sort of cooperative arrangements between CFOG and other CP/M user groups will be further discussed in the future.

A subscription to the MicroPro Users Group newsletter was approved.

 

February Board Meeting

There was no quorum of the board itself. Therefore no business could be conducted. Those present heard reports presented.

The disk library has been converted to DD. There are now 85 disks in library. (02/23/86)

RCPM #2 is ready to go in action.

Dave Jacobsohn would like to know speaker one month in advance.

Cedrick Chernick is now maintaining the mailing list on our old Design One 10Mb hard disk.

Mike Andrews volunteered to be new Program Chairman.

We are still advertising in ComputerPeople Monthly with some success.

Tom Ferguson reported that our tax consultants recommended that we should eliminate Osborne specificity.

The proposal to go to a call-back system may be mooted by the impending death of call-pak unlimited.

We now have envelopes for CFOG business.

It was suggested that future planning should be made the subject of a special meeting devoted solely to that topic.

 

May Meeting at Museum

Don't forget that the May 18 meeting will be held at the Museum of Science and Industry's Information Technology Resource Center, in the East Wing of the Museum.

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CFOG's PIP, February 1986, Volume 4 No. 4, Whole No. 40, page 6

Such a Deal!

by Benjamin H. Cohen

So Osborne Computer Corporation is "dead again". So what? Well right now, there seems to be a bunch of new stuff for your Osborne or other CP/M computer, some other stuff we've received news about that we thought might interest you, and some special deals for CFOG members. Here goes:

Microtech, distributors of the INOVA 500 and SKEYS, now have an INOVA 1000 1 megabyte memory board, with up to 800K RAM disk, $550 including SKEYS. Microtech reports these now have "sprint-loading" of one or two floppies in seconds and up to 60K print buffer.

Microtech also offers an 11 megabyte internal hard disk for the Exec, now at $995, with a low-noise high-volume fan, utilities, etc.

Not to ignore the O-1, Microtech offers the "ROMBO", a 512K enhancement with 256K of programmable ROM into which you "burn" your favorite software so that they are available instantaneously when you boot plus 256K RAM disk with print buffer, blinking cursor, and clock. ROMBO is introduced at $349, available as a kit (no cutting or soldering), installed free if you ship your O-1 to Microtech, and is compatible with OCC or Nuevo 80 column and DD boards, Drive C, and Ozrom. If you want to be able to reprogram the ROM from time to time, add $35 for an EPROM eraser. Contact Microtech at 842 Stanton Road, Burlingame, CA 94010, 415-692-1404.

This is a bit off the subject, but not too far -- Robert C. Marinace, Marinace Resources Group, offers Morrow MD3P portables for $695 each, less in quantity. The MD3P is a 4MHz Z80A CP/M 2.2 machine with 64K RAM, 2 DSDD 384K drives, that reads and writes Osborne 1 single and double density disks, Kaypro DD, Xerox 820 SD and DD, IBM PC CP/M-86, Televideo DD, and HP125 DD formats. Serial and parallel ports are included, 9 function keys, NewWord, CorrectIt, Logicalc, Personal Pearl, MBASIC, and Pilot, an elementary programming language that can be used for creating screen menus, games, etc. The 5x9 inch screen displays 80 columns by 24 lines. The Morrow systems include a "virtual drive" technique which automatically assign references to nonexistent drives to Drive A: followed by an on-screen message to insert a diskette in Drive A: for the operation. Morrow users can probably tell us a lot about how neat this is, and not just for those times that you goof and try to write a file to "N" which is only one character over from "B". Marinace can be reached at 787 Lippert Ave., Fremont, CA 94539, 408-262-9722. We hear that the MD3P may be a service problem as Morrow apparently didn't make it simple to open up the case with just a few screws. You might want to query local Morrow service outlets.

There's more. In addition to releasing the new version of PRESTO!, Spectre Technologies has released TWIST and SHOUT, two somewhat related programs for use with dotmatrix printers. TWIST prints your spreadsheets sideways, for those spreadsheets you have that are only 46 lines long but run about 350 columns wide. SHOUT prints banners sideways, somewhat like the public domain GOTHIC.COM, but with different typefaces and in varying sizes. TWIST and SHOUT are bundled together at $39.95 if I have it correctly in my memory -- a bargain if you have need for either one.

Still more. Nuevo Electronics is offering brand new Executives for $595. That's a very good price, and I'd recommend that you jump on them while they are still available.

Nuevo also offers a bunch of fancy Executive upgrades under the rubric "ESU". I've never seen any of these, but they sound absolutely fantastic. In addition to double sided and quad density drives, not new, they offer such new options as a SCSI/SASI interface, the ability to use your old SS drives as extra external drives when you upgrade your system to DS, Screen dump, compatability with WestWind products (Drive C and Trantor hard disks). ESU Executives read, write, and format about 20 different types of formats, and automatically recognizes them in the drives. My tongue hangs out when I read their materials. DD upgrades are down to $99 -- get 'em while they are hot, single density folks! DD + 80 columns for $269. Exec fans, which can also be used on the gray case O-1, $25.

And, WestWind weighs in with a "Dare to Compare Super Spring Sale". The MS-DOS clones start at $1395 for an XT compatible with 640K RAM, 2 360K floppies, hi-res Hercules compatible graphics, 14" hi-res monochromc monitor, parallel port, 1 year warranty, DOS 3.1, SC2, NewWord 2, SuperFile, RAM disk, print buffer, and NEC's V2O so you can run your CP/M software (now there's a new reason to get an MS-DOS computer -- so you'll be able to run your CP/M software when your CP/M system is down!)

For CP/M buffs, closeouts on the 384K Drive C: RAM disk peripherals are $350, [the 512K Drive C2 is $450, the 1MB $599], and there are spccials on small Trantor hard disks, 5MB is $595 and 11MB is $795. A "Turbo 5", the 5MB hard disk with a 1MB Drive C2, is $995. Dave Price says that with their new loader software and cache disk software this offers blinding speed and does a lot more for you than a Drive C2 plus their battery back-up, which they are not currently pushing, and apparently you'll have a long wait if you order one.

We're just one order short of getting a user group discount order together for CFOG members. If you're interested in saving from $24 to $100 or more on WestWind products, call Vic Kahn at (312) 435-1417. Some of us are anxious to get our orders in, so don't hesitate!

Rain Crystal Products in Menlo Park, CA, is offering a 64K parallel print buffer for $84.95, but we can save $10 bucks off that price if two are ordered. The same source has the Avatex 1200 baud modem for $149.95, $129.95 each if we order two. The print buffer has built in self-test, has its own power supply and a built in cable. At $75 this ought to be a good deal. Contact Ben Cohen at 726-3569 (answering machine, leave a message).